Humanverse

Freddie vs Free

American parents have registered 83,643 Freddies since 1880, against 132 Frees. Freddie is still ahead, with 130 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Freddie against Free, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Freddie Free

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Freddie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Freddie had 100 and Free had 17.

Side by side

  Freddie Free
Total US births 83,643132
Most in one year 1,95819
Babies in 2025 130under 5
Estimated living today 43,000130
Median age today 6519
Peak year 19471975
Best rank 153rd boys5,984th girls
Rank in 2025 1,509thunranked
First recorded 18801974
Girls / boys 10,328 / 73,31576 / 56

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Freddies alive today are over 65; half the Frees are over 19. That is 46 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Freddie and Free.